So here I am writing after a long time. Sorry for the delay as I got married recently and was preparing for it. Now I am back on track so I am starting my new blog post about the Sri lankan police.

Just got fed up of all the junctions where cops swarm. They are in almost any junction with traffic lights or NOT. It’s strange how traffic automatically generates when they are close by. Maybe this is why they are called traffic cops.

Today was one of the most annoying days as I was driving with my wife to the Hospital. The traffic started from the end of WA Silva Mawatha and entrance of Pamankada in Wellawatte. Went all the way to the roundabout and to Havelock town. You know where the reebok shop is? it went all the way there. What was all this halabaloo? There were three cops at the junction.

On a Saturday it took us 15-20 minutes to go that bit BY CAR. On a normal day it takes around 5-7 mins to do that stretch without cops.

Traffic cops are there just to create traffic. One of the main spots is the junction before the Dehiwela bridge. Remember how all the busses going towards Moratuwa had to go through an alternate road before the bridge.

Sometimes there are four cops in a four-way junction for each road. Each will try and direct traffic their own way and cause more traffic. Why the hell do they want to do this? Do they think they are doing their duty?

e.g. abroad Traffic cops are there when the traffic signals don’t work and someone is needed to direct traffic.

Overview Its a pretty awesome place with loads of things to see. As we go further into the depths of this topic you will get more insight about it.

Where is this thing exactly? When you come to the town of Bhuththala you can see all arrows pointing to this unique place. Also with the unique sponsor of Mobitel you cannot miss this HUGE location. This was also the spot for Gam Udawa 92.

How’s the food? For a decent amount of 10-50/- you can get a good kadala gotta. For about 100-250 you can get a good deal on meals.

Transport? This is a good question. From the town of Bhuththala you may take a Trishaw (aka Took Took) for like 100 bucks to the main entrance ONLY. It will cost more if you are going take a ride to the other side. Also please note in this lovely town of huththala there are no cabs, busses stop running from 5:30 onwards to Badhulla.

Accommodation?? Let me put it in categories. On a normal day with no Dayata Kirula it costs 1000/- a day and night. On the day before Dayata Kirula it costs 1500/- a night with day its 2500 On the day of Dayata Kirula it costs (drum roll) 3000/- a night and 5000 per day. Some places have asked for at least 30,000. Other options if you are a stall owner bunk in the stall or go to your uncles place.

How’s the weather? It always seems to be sunny when they show on TV? Sunny? I think it’s in their dreams also I saw it in mine. Weather is terrible. The whole place is muddy and beware that your foot could get stuck in the mud. I broke like 2 pairs of slippers just trying to get to my stall. The first three days were raining and gloomy. The rest of the days were sunny and very hot.

So about stalls.

What was the best and outstanding stall? When I recall DK (aka Dayata Kirula), I remember that the best stall out of everywhere was the Kavi Madala. Yes that’s right. (By the way this is my choice :P). So anyways it was very interesting. There were at least five males and six females. They had a session of “Hitiwana Kavi”. That was just great. Also there was a one liner thing, where one person tells one line made at that moment. It was so nice to see how enthusiastic they were to run up to the mic and tell their lines. Very very nice.

What was the most annoying/sad stall? The worse stall was the “Pitasakwala Jeeveen” stall. Man, I get pissed by just trying to remember that place. There is a commentator that keeps repeating the same thing all the time like a broken record. From the time DK starts this guy keeps telling the same thing. The volume of the stall was so high it drowned other stalls.

In and out of the main announcement he would say these. “Onna pitasuckwala Jeeviyek oluwa dagena innawa. Onna balanna.” This was just a person with a rubber mask of ET. “Onna balagena athul wena kota, bayawenna epa palamuwa innae “Predator” namethi pitasuckwala jeeviya.” “Eliyata yana kota innae Alien namethi pitasuckwala jeeveeya, baya wenna epa. ha ha ha” “Enna ape Pitasuckwala jeeveenge pradarshana kutiyata mema sthanayata kiyannae Area 57” (How sad is that) The worse part of this stall was, its just about all the Scifi movie creatures been reproduced in rubber and made. At least show something real? teach the people, NO they have this false show to educate the local people with trash. They say British scientists have found that these creatures do exist.

Overall other stalls were good. Like from the Airforce, Navy, Police. They showed all the “behind the scene” stuff. Very interesting. There was also a train station with an actual steam engine running down a small track. It went I think 1/2 way around DK. It was pretty good.

So in a summary, bad weather, best stall was the Kavi Madala, worse stall was the Pitasuckwala jeeveen. So next time before you make plans to come to a place like this be prepared. Ask before hand from someone you know around the area about the prices of things.

One of the main questions I had was this. I was alarmed even further as .nef files are supported by Nikon Camera’s and if this program does not work what will?

I had a Nikon D3000 and I was using Capture NX2.0.0. and all the picture previews came as unrecognized files (If the file is recognized you will see a preview).

So if you get the message “Warning Cannot Load File” with the path and file name.

Please check with the version of Capture NX2. The person who had this issue was using a D300S and had the version 2.2.0 at that time the latest was 2.2.4. At the time of writing this the version is 2.2.6. After I installed the latest version all the pictures came up properly.

So today I was thinking about how people get drunk and was wondering how the aftereffects of drunkenness affects the brain.

So I am basically relating this with the personal experiences I have seen when people get drunk. I am writing this in hopes of changing peoples limits to a certain extent. This is in no hopes of making anyone STOP drinking it. I do occasionally too. 😛

So first how does someone get drunk? What actually happens?
Basically when you take in alcohol (like a cup NOT mugs and jugs) the body is capable of breaking down this within an hour or so.

So what do the Sri Lankans do? “Ado machan api set wemu, bites gennen” (Translated – Hey dude lets go have a drink, bring some tidbits when you come.) What does this bites mean? This is something you take in to slow down the absorption of alcohol to the body so you can drink more. Also you talk and shyt to slow it even further.

So the first day you do this and its all good. So you keep at it and later you think “ok, there is no kick now. I don’t get drunk, wtf?”

Now you slowly start to do one of the following.
1. Eat less bites – So the people who don’t drink will wonder “OMFG how come these guys eat so less.” Sometimes if you are not a drinker you might hear the occasional “Hey this idiot is eating all our bites. Shooo”.
2. Put less shandy.
3. Drink bit faster – with the same shandy and bite rate if you drink more faster (less than an hour).

By doing one or all of the following you can guarantee yourself to be drunk. In other words when your body cannot break down the alcohol you drink, you get drunk.

So now you are drunk, what does this mean and what gets affected?

The Cerebral Cortex and alcohol

The cerebral cortex processes information from your senses, processes thoughts, initiates the majority of voluntary muscle movements and has some control over lower-order brain centers. In the cerebral cortex, alcohol can:

Affect thought processes, leading to potentially poor judgment.

Depresses inhibition, leading one to become more talkative and more confident.

Blunts the senses and increases the threshold for pain.

As the BAC increases, these effects get more pronounced.

So you ever wonder why people talk about how they feel about others, secrets they did, things that they are guilty about. All emotions can be sent out by getting drunk a bit. When you see them pour a glass with shaking hands, you know where they are.

The limbic system and alcohol

The limbic system, which consists of the hippocampus and septal area of the brain, controls memory and emotions. The affect of alcohol on this system is that the person may experience some memory loss and may have exaggerated states of emotion.

This is the place you start to cry, laugh loud or express your emotions fully when you spoke something during the earlier stage. Remember the time when your friend said “Dude wtf?? I said that? I don’t remember anything man… LOL”. So now you know when your friend has gone to the second stage.

The cerebellum and alcohol

The cerebellum coordinates muscle movement. The cerebral cortex initiates the muscular movement by sending a signal through the medulla and spinal cord to the muscles. As the nerve signals pass through the medulla, they are influenced by nerve impulses from the cerebellum, which controls the fine movements, including those necessary for balance. When alcohol affects the cerebellum, muscle movements become uncoordinated.

This is the point when you start swaying, trying to hold something as you walk. Also now pouring the glass is becoming harder. When you try and fill the cup and miss, some start laughing to themselves. etc. This is when you hit the third part.

The hypothalamus, pituitary gland and alcohol

The hypothalamus controls and influences many automatic functions of the brain (through the medulla), and coordinates hormonal release (through the pituitary gland). Alcohol depresses nerve centers in the hypothalamus that control sexual arousal and performance. With increased alcohol consumption, sexual desire increases – but sexual performance declines.

By inhibiting the pituitary secretion of anti-diuretic hormone (ADH), alcohol also affects urine excretion. ADH acts on the kidney to reabsorb water, so when it is inhibited, ADH levels drop, the kidneys don’t reabsorb as much water and the kidneys produce more urine.

This is the stage where some men use alcohol to rape women. When the women is in this stage only she will give into the man to have sex. The pleasure for sexual arousal will be there however she will not be able to “act wild”. This makes it easy for women to loosen up to have a fling. But this is a very highly risky state of mind. Also you might have heard “I need to take a phiss now… ha ha ha” and you help your friend goto the bathroom to take a leek.

The medulla and alcohol

The medulla (brain stem) influences or controls body functions that occur automatically, such as your heart rate, temperature and breathing. When alcohol affects the medulla, a person will start to feel sleepy. Increased consumption can lead to unconscious. Needless to say, alcohol’s effect on the medulla can be fatal if it is excessive.

This is the stage you need to be careful of. Its the last level of alcohol consumption and maybe yourself. People feel sleepy and sometimes become unconscious because of this stage. Remember your friend who says “I need to take a piss” and disappears into the bathroom for about an hour and no answer. Then you make your way into the toilet to find out he’s sleeping with his head resting on the commode. If this is ignored and more is consumed then you may rest in piece.

So to all the drinkers, remember your limit and don’t push your luck. As I said before read this at your own will and don’t spam me with shyt.